After studying hotel management in college, he began his career as an entry-level bell attendant at Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove in Australia. He soon worked his way up, moving into finance and then into IT with computers becoming prevalent throughout the industry. During the 34 years he has been with the company, he has relocated to cities around the world. In his current position, which he accepted in 2018, he manages global field IT, guest room technology, the service desk, and
the company’s property management and POS systems.

One of Hammond’s biggest challenges is scaling quickly. “We have a changing environment, particularly considering our mergers and acquisitions,” he said, noting that he has been able to navigate the changes over the years because of standard processes the company has implemented. “Those processes help
us move faster and more smoothly when we transition new properties into the Hyatt technology stack.”

Hammond and his team have completed quite a few projects in the last couple of years. In late 2024, they implemented a payment gateway rollout with Freedom Pay to provide new front desk and POS payment gateway solutions to the company’s properties throughout the United States and Canada. They also partnered with Nomadix to implement Passpoint (formerly Hotspot 2.0), which uses WPA2 encryption to make hotel guest room wireless internet connections immune to a growing number of attacks. Phase one, recently completed, enables faster and more secure Wi-Fi for guests using the World of Hyatt mobile app; phase two, which begins this year, will address laptop computers.

Yet, Hammond’s biggest project to date is Hyatt’s transition to Opera Cloud. “We’re moving to 100 percent cloud-based technology globally across 74 countries,” he said, noting that Hyatt will use Oracle’s proprietary OHIP toolset to enable faster and more cost-effective integrations. Implementation is expected to extend through 2026.

“We’ve been moving in this direction for three or four years,” he said, noting that the cloud not only improves operational efficiency but also enhances data access and collaboration between teams. Additionally, it can adapt to changing demands by scaling up or down as required, all while minimizing the need for on-premise hardware maintenance. “It will allow us to focus more on guest service and less on the management of complex on-property IT infrastructure.”

As for the future, Hammond is looking at incorporating AI and chatbot technologies that will reduce workflow to the service desk and enable self-service capabilities for staff. And he is always looking for ways to improve the online safety of guests and employees. “Cybersecurity is definitely top of mind,” he concluded. “Hotels are targets for cyberattacks, so protecting data is one of my principal priorities.”

CAMERON’S INDUSTRY PREDICTIONS:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL INCREASE. “WITHIN TWO YEARS, I BELIEVE ALMOST EVERY HOTEL SOFTWARE VENDOR WILL OFFER AI CAPABILITIES.”

VENDOR CONSOLIDATION WILL INCREASE. “WE’VE SEEN SOME OF THIS IN THE LAST YEAR, AND I THINK THERE WILL BE MORE OF IT IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS,” HE SAID.

PMS CAPABILITIES WILL BECOME MORE MODULAR. “THIS WILL ENABLE PROPERTIES TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN MODULES, WHICH WILL BE FLEXIBLE AND EASY TO INTEGRATE.”